Indian private firm Reliance Industries (RIL) and British energy giant BP planned to start natural gas production from the $5-billion R-Series deepwater fields in the KG-D6 natural gas block in the east coast of India by the end of June. However, the production startup may be delayed further if India’s nationwide lockdown persists.
This would make another delay for the project’s production startup. In October 2019, BP chairman Bob Dudley said the first gas from the project would be produced in May. Both companies have awarded a tender for 5 million m³/d of gas to buyers such as GAIL, Essar group, and Adani group. RIL and BP have notified them about the delivery dates.
India imported 2.86bn m³ of LNG in March, increasing by 20.4% from a year earlier, oil ministry data showed. The country began imposing a nationwide lockdown on March 25 and extended it by two weeks to May 17. Nearly 46,500 people have contracted COVID-19 in India, of whom 1,568 died, according to official data.
